Chris’ Comics: Titans Rebirth

Titans Rebirth

Dan Abnett, Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund, Andrew Dalhouse

DC $2.99

While Green Arrow is a character/franchise I’ve never given a damn about, Teen Titans/Titans is something I’ve flirted with for most of my comics reading life. Having characters like Dick Grayson, Wally West, and Donna Troy associated with the franchise helps a lot, but for whatever reason helps, but ultimately I’m out after an arc. I doubt I’m the only one who’s had this problem, as it seems like DC has a problem with the franchise post Geoff Johnsdeparture from the title in the mid 2000s. With Rebirth, the brand is split into two books, one with a fairly iconic roster of Teen Titans debuting later this year, and an older lineup of Titans dropping this past week.

Titans Rebirth isn’t a bad comic, but it’s very much the definition of a zero issue. With Wally West back in action, he seeks out to reunite himself with his former sidekicks, who’ve recently reunited in the Dan Abnett penned Titan Hunt mini-series. While that mini-series isn’t mandatory reading for this issue, I imagine it will help reader recognize the less iconic characters in this story. Abnett’s script is very by the numbers, chock of cliche dialogue and by the numbers moments, including the mandatory hero on hero fight due to misunderstanding. It’s not particularly bad, but nothing worth celebrating.

Drawing this comic and I believe the series going forward is Brett Booth, who is the very definition of Jim Lee 90s style art, for better and for worse. Booth excels at layout, going with some very dynamic layouts that ooze with the type of energy you want from a super hero comics. He also get creative with his panel layouts towards the end of the comic, something that I enjoyed very much, and does a really great job with language and facial expressions. Where Booth falters is his inability to draw teenagers early on in the issue, and his design for Roy Harper aka Red Arrow, aka Arsenal. I know he’s not the guy who gave him an “iconic” backwards Baseball cap, but that plus goggles is a dated look that makes very little sense. Also I question how Wally’s costume continues to shine, even in the dark

Assisting Booth on the art are Norm Rapmund and Andrew Dalhouse, who ink and color the book respectively. Rapmud tends to do heavy on the cross stitching at time throughout the comic, but that aside his work is really quite excellent. His linework is clean and thin, and looks gorgeous when paired with Dalhouse’s bright and playful colors. Even if Booth’s art isn’t your thing, it’s hard not to like it thanks to the contributions by Rapmund and Dalhouse

Titans Rebirth is a comic book-ass comic book. The heroes have a misunderstanding, fight and resolve everything within 20 pages. Abnett tries to stir emotions with some fun flashbacks, but given this DC Universe is only 5 years old, it feels cheap, and unoriginal (I think this is the third time a writer has tried doing a Kid Flash/Robin stealing the Batmobile story in the last decade). But imperfections aside, Titans looks to be in capable hands, and there’s definitely some promise.